What is the simplest way to display httpServletResponse.sendError(403, "My Message") status from JSTL

error-handling, jsp, jstl, servlets

Solution

The scriptlet:

<%= request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.error.message") %>

can be translated to the following EL:

${requestScope['javax.servlet.error.message']}

The brace notation `bean['foo.bar']` is very useful if you have dots in `Map` or scoped key names, because `bean.foo.bar` obviously doesn't return the desired `Map` or scoped value.

Problem

I have a servlet which does some error checking and if something is wrong I will typically do this: ``` response.sendError(403, "My message") return; ``` I don't want to throw an exception from the servlet - because I would like to conform with HTTP status codes. In the web.xml I have configured the following: ``` <error-page> <error-code>403</error-code> <location>/failure.jsp</location> </error-page> ``` In the failure.jsp I have declared usage of JSTL and I would like to get the error messages displayed. I know that I can do the following in scriptlets: ``` <%= request.getAttribute("javax.servlet.error.message") %> ``` But I would like to use JSTL with some c:if clause so if I can drop using scriptlets, this would be appreciated. How can I easily fetch the values from the sendError statement in the servlet in the error page by using JSTL?

Original source